1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telecommunications and, more particularly, to managing client/server interactions.
2. General Background
Many people are increasingly relying on World Wide Web resources to obtain information. Many wireless communication devices, such as wireless telephones and wireless PDAs, are now capable of accessing the World Wide Web. In general, such wireless devices can serve as wireless client devices in sessions with servers. During such sessions, the wireless client devices receive, via an air interface, content formatted for a given presentation mode. Such content may include voice, text, graphics, data and/or other media.
The presentation mode refers to the way a user-interface of a wireless device presents content to the user. For example, the wireless device may have a browser function to allow the content to be presented in a screen-based presentation mode, e.g., to be displayed one screen at a time. Content for such a screen-based presentation mode is often written in a markup language, such as Wireless Markup Language (WML) or Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), to facilitate the transmission of data over wireless networks and to facilitate the display of content on the smaller screens that handheld wireless devices typically use.
Presentation modes other than screen-based modes are available in some wireless devices. For example, some wireless devices can use a voice-based presentation mode, in which the wireless device presents the content to the user as voice. Such content may be written in a voice-based markup language, such as the Voice Extensible Markup Language (VXML), to facilitate voice-based presentation. Some client devices are capable of both voice-based and screen-based content presentation. In other words, they are multi-modal, in that they are able to present content to users in more than one presentation mode.